1. Happy New Year!
2. 2010
3. Website of the Month
4. Einstein Says…
5. Brighton Marathon 2010
1.
Happy New Year!
Dear Maths
Friends- welcome, and a very happy 2010 to you and yours.
Remember
that thanks to the generosity of HP Calculators, subscription will remain free,
and there will be occasional offers made ONLY to subscribers. (The Christmas
offer proved very popular and there will more ‘subscriber-only’ offers this
year.)
I am
kicking off 2010 with some exciting news: for the Spring
term only, I have accepted a job working as part of the maths consultancy team
for the East Sussex LA. It is only two days a week due to my other commitments,
but I am really looking forward to working with other teachers on the planning
and delivery of their maths lessons. If I do get to visit your school, do come
and say ‘hello’.
This does
mean that if you want a visit this term there are now fewer dates available,
though still enough to keep most people happy I hope!
No results
for December’s competition this month, as no entries were received! You can all
have another month to try it out. If you missed it or have deleted it, you can
always check the website archive where all
the old issues are kept.
Be Well,
Andrew
2. 2010
I was
involved in a forum conversation recently about whether you will say “two
thousand and ten” or “twenty ten”. In my
case probably a bit of both, but whichever it will be for you, we can’t let the
decade begin without doing some maths with it.
I well
remember during my schooldays being challenged in the first maths lesson of
every January to do interesting things with the date. Frustratingly, a whole
generation of children have grown up with dates that have either two 9s or two
zero's in, which obviously makes things less interesting. At last though we are
back to a date which, although it still has two zeros, has them apart, and this
allows us a little more flexibility. So why not challenge your class on the
first day back to get their mathematical muscles warmed up again? Here are just
a few questions to get you started, which you can select according to the age
and ability of your children. Of course, the best ones will be the ones you
makeup yourself. Or why not ask them to come up with interesting questions? Why
should we do all the work?!
Let me
know if you get any great ones!
****************KS1
*****************
What do
the digits in 2010 add up to?
Put the
digits in ascending/descending order.
How many
years until you are 10? Or 20?
How many
different 2-digit numbers can you make from 2010? (Does 02 count as a 2-digit
number?)
How many
different 3-digit numbers are possible? Or 4-digit ones?
How many
years since the Millennium began? (Two possible answers here; remember the old
arguments?!).
***********************
*****************
****************KS2
*****************
When was
the last time since the first 2 digits in the year were exactly twice the
second two digits?
When will
that happen again? And will there always be the same gap between such years?
How many
times has it happened since the year zero?
When is
the next year that doesn't have a zero in it? (It's a few years further away than you might expect!)
How can we
find out whether 2,3,4,5,6,8 or 10 divide into 2010 exactly?
What other
factors of 2010 can you find?
A field
has a perimeter of 2010m. What could its dimensions be? (Lots of scope here; do we allow non-whole numbers, can you find one
that is a square, etc.)
***********************
*****************
****************KS3*****************
Find all
the Factors of 2010
Express
2010 as the Product of Prime Factors (there is a particularly high one in the
list)
A cuboid
has a volume of 2010 cm3. What could its dimensions be if they are
all whole numbers? (This follows on nicely from the previous question of
course)
If a cube
had a volume of 2010cm3, how long would each side be?
By
splitting 2010 any way you like but keeping the digits in the same order, how
many different totals can you make? (E.g.
20+10=30. or 2x0 -1+0 = -1 etc)
Estimate
how far could you walk or run in 2010 seconds. (There's more maths in this
question than is first apparent)
What is
the biggest/most famous place you can find that is
exactly 2010 miles/kilometres from where you are now?
***********************
*****************
****************KS4
*****************
What is
unique about the number 2010 (nothing
springs to mind, so there's room for creativity here?)
What is
interesting about these dates: 1776, 1941, 1984, 2001, 2010? (Email me if you can't figure this one out!)
A
right-angled triangle has a hypotenuse of 2010. How long could the other two
sides be? Can you find any whole number answers? (Probably not –but can you prove it?)
Can you
design a magic square whose total is always 2010?
***********************
*****************
So there
you go – a few starting points. And next year, for the first time since 1988 –
there’s only one nine or zero in the date – yay!!
3. Website of the Month
There are two websites this month, one for primary and one for secondary as both age groups are catered for differently.
What am I talking about? The UK Maths Challenges of course. Primary schools should visit the MA site to find out more, while secondary schools should click here.
I am always surprised at how many people DON’T do this! You can even get hold of past papers, many without charge, and they are a great way to challenge your class to think mathematically rather than switch off and just follow rules blindly…(I realize that the next Primary one isn’t until November but it’s a good idea to get hold of some past papers anyway, and see if it’s something you might like to do.)
4. Einstein
Says: An Encouraging Thought With Which to Start the Year
Those of
you who have been subscribers for a long time will be aware that I sometimes
like to include an inspiring quotation from the great Albert Einstein, or
occasionally from a ‘guest quotee’. Today’s quote is the latter, and is
particularly apt as we look forward to a new year and hopefully a new and
improved version of ourselves. If (like me) you hold on to things from the past
which you shouldn’t, perhaps out of fear of the unknown, this might be helpful.
It’s from W. E. B. Dubois, and I saw it most recently etched onto a mirror in a
hotel foyer in Brighton. I
hope it will provide you with the strength (in whatever it may be that you need
strength for) this year.
“The most important thing to remember is this: To be ready at any
moment to give up what you are for what you might become.”
.
The more I
think about it, the more I begin to appreciate its wisdom!
5.
The Brighton Marathon 2010
I have
always maintained that I would do everything I could to ensure that this monthly
maths newsletter would remain a free subscription. I appreciate how stretched
many of us are after Christmas, and thanks to the generosity of Hewlett Packard
Calculators it will remain so for now.
Despite
that, I hope you will forgive me asking for your help with my latest challenge.
Still thinking back to ‘what we may become’, some would say that
43 is perhaps a little too old to attempt your first marathon. They are probably
right, but at the not-so-tender age of 43 I am attempting to fulfill a
life-long ambition and run just over 26 miles in the inaugural Brighton
Marathon this April, in aid of a local charity called Off The Fence (and
Motor Neurone Disease, from which my Godfather passed away last June.)
I am particularly keen to support Project
Antifreeze and Project Gateway, both of which you can see details of here.
So I pray
you will not be offended, but I am asking all 3573 of you (at the last count): could
you spare a pound or two for the homeless and vulnerable folk on the streets of
Brighton? I did a quick ‘back of the envelope’ calculation this morning,
and with subscribers at the current level I reckon we could make over ten
thousand pounds if most people donated even just £3. Of course, if you want to donate less
that’s brilliant too, and it goes
without saying that more is wonderful! Rest assured that Off The
Fence will be hugely grateful for every penny – the only problem is
whether or not I can manage to run 26 miles!
Thank you
all so much – I am determined to get round, and I guess that the more donations that are
pledged, the more motivation I will have to train on those bitter mornings!
Here is
the link again: http://www.justgiving.com/Andrew-Jeffrey
That’s it
for this month – I hope your 2010 starts well.
Thanks yet
again for being a subscriber, and remember, if you enjoy the newsletter, please
encourage others to sign up at http://andrewjeffrey.co.uk/newsletter.asp
AJx
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